Are you planning on hosting a dinner party or holiday party soon and are looking for a way to pull your table decor together? I recently hosted my 5th Friendsgiving, and I wanted to create new decor to celebrate the event! Before I host an event or party, I usually have an idea of how I want my table to look.

I first start by gathering ideas by creating a vision board on Pinterest or Spoonflower (if I’m purchasing fabric). A vision board helps gather my thoughts, color scheme, and creates inspiration for my upcoming project.

One way I love to add a pop of color to my tablescape is to create DIY cloth napkins, placemats, and table runner. I love how these simple and interchangeable decorations can transform a table with little effort! Plus, they’re reusable, so you eliminate needing to purchase and throw out paper napkins. I know there are some great store-bought options, but creating your own adds a unique element to your table decorations.

If you’re new to sewing, this is a perfect beginner sewing project! When sewing napkins, there are so many options, and I will be walking you through three different ways in the blog post below.

What You Need to Sew Your Cloth Napkins

• Fabric
• Matching Thread

Fabric I Used for this Project:

• Scalloped Dots in Pantone 79-5 by Ivie Cloth Co.
• Wine Indigo Floral by Lil Faye
• Plaid Watercolor in Navy by Little Arrow Design

Fabric I Used for the Table Runner and Placemats (Shown in Photos):

• Navy Blue Grid // Weave Fabric by Rebecca Reck Art
• Swedish Folk Art Bird Fabric by Meissa
• Cream Blueberry Fabric by Andrea Lauren

Standard Napkin Sizes

• Dinner Napkin Size: 21 x 21
• Luncheon Napkin Size: 14.5 x 14.5
• Cocktail Napkins: 11 x 11

Best Fabric for Cloth Napkins

Fat Quarters

• I love using fat quarters for cloth napkins. They come pre-cut and are ready to sew

1-2 Yards of Fabric

• If you cannot find the fabric you are looking for in fat quarters, you can purchase fabric by the yard and cut it down to the size you want.

Spoonflower’s Fill-A-Yard

• For my napkins, I used Spoonflower’s Fill-A-Yard template. Their template includes 6 different options, including dinner napkins, to customize your fabric.

You can upload and print up to 12 different designs when you use the dinner napkin template! I uploaded 3 designs to their program, giving me 3 sets of 4 napkins.

To use their Fill-a-Yard program, you will need to login to their website and create a collection.

Once you’ve uploaded all of the patterns you may want to include, you click the “Start Designing” button at the top of the page. Next, select the template you would like to use, so you can start designing your project! Their site is easy to use and has thousands of fabric options to select for any project. Having so many options is a great thing, but it can also be overwhelming! I know I spent A LOT of time browsing designs and trying to come up with the perfect combination for Friendsgiving and upcoming dinners.

How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners – Option 1

Step 1: Measure your fabric and cut out your square – giving you an extra inch or material to hem the edges.
Step 2: Iron your material to get out any wrinkles.
Step 3: Fold your fabric over 1/4” – ½” and press around all four sides. I pressed ¼”.
Step 4: Next, fold over your fabric over again to how wide you want your border to be and press fabric. The napkins in this project are ½”.

Step 5: Open up the fabric once. Measure 2x the width of your border along both sides of the corner and mark with a fabric marker.

Step 6: Next, using a ruler, draw a line connecting the two marks.

Step 7: Fold the corner in half, with right sides of the fabric together, and match your markings. Sew a stitch along your marked line.

Step 8: Trim excess fabric.
Step 9: Fold open the corner and press with an iron. Repeat this step for all four corners.

Step 10: Top stitch along the inner edge of your fabric … and you’re done!

How to Sew Napkins with Mitered Corners – Option 2:

No-Sew + an Additional Sewing Option

Step 1: Measure your fabric and cut out your square – giving you an extra inch or material to hem the edges.
Step 2: Iron your material to get out any wrinkles.
Step 3: Fold the corner of your fabric ½”.

Step 4: Next, fold your fabric over ¼” and press.
Step 5: Trim your corner fabric as shown in the picture below. (This will hide the corners of your fabric.)

Step 6: Fold and press all four sides again.
Step 7: To finish, topstitch along the inner edge of your fabric.

No-Sew Napkin Instructions

Skip step 7 in the list above and complete the following two steps:

Step 7: Add hem tape under your border and press.
Step 8: To help keep the hem tape over time, add a slip stitch around the inner corner.

I love quick and easy sewing projects! These napkins are adorable and are completely customizable. Since the project takes little sewing time, you can easily make them in an afternoon or weekend!

Do you have any plans to sew cloth napkins? Let me know what you’re planning in the comments below!

The fabric used in this post was generously provided to me by Spoonflower, but as always all opinions expressed are my own!